Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan found his next project in an adaptation of S.C. Gwynne’s book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.
Taylor Sheridan via CBS Sunday Morning YouTube
According to the book’s official description on Amazon, it tells “two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.”
The description adds, “Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana.”
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History (2010), Scribner
The Comanches effectiveness saw the formation of the Texas Rangers and the six-gun, which would eventually lead to their demise.
The description shares, “White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.”
It adds, “The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.”
Quanah Parker, Chief of the Comanches, Lawton, Oklahoma. Photo Credit: SMU Central University Libraries, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Finally, it concludes, “Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836.”
“She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the ‘White Squaw’ who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.”
Cynthia Ann Parker. Photo Credit: SMU Central University Libraries, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
The book’s author S.C. Gwynne had high praise for Sheridan and the upcoming adaptation telling Deadline, “I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring Empire of the Summer Moon to the screen than Taylor Sheridan.”
He added, “He has a deep and nuanced understanding of both the myth and reality of the Old West. I am thrilled that he is undertaking this project.”
Taylor Sheridan via PowerfulJRE YouTube
While Sheridan will be adapting the novel, most likely into a television series, it’s unclear where the series will find its home. The project previously had a home at Warner Bros. and Sheridan’s other series such as Yellowstone, Mayor Kingstown, Tulsa King, 1883, 1923, Special Ops: Lioness, and Lawmen: Bass Reeves are all at Paramount.
What do you make of Sheridan adapting the story of Quanah and the Comanche?
